Stocks nearly flat; banks, airlines up
U.S. stocks hardly budged Thursday and finished with a mix of small gains and losses. Banks and airlines rose on strong firstquarter reports, while consumer products companies struggled.
The market wavered throughout the day. Stocks are coming off two big gains in a row and are trading at their highest levels of the year.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 18.15 points, or 0.1%, to 17,926.43. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index ticked up 0.36 point to 2,082.78. The Nasdaq composite lost 1.53 point to 4,945.89.
The results from banks haven’t been great so far, but investors expected even worse because of shaky loans to energy companies and low interest rates that have made lending less profitable.
Bank of America picked up 35 cents, or 2.5%, to $14.14, as its results met investor expectations. First Republic Bank jumped $2.38, or 3.5%, to $69.88 after the San Francisco bank reported a bigger-than-expected profit.
Data storage company Seagate Technology said its third-quarter profit margins and revenue will be lower than expected. The company said it’s seeing lower demand for some kinds of hard disk drives. Its stock plunged $6.82, or 20.1%, to $27.11, by far the largest loss in the S&P 500. Competitor Western Digital fell $2.98, or 6.7%, to $41.82 and NetApp lost $1.06, or 4%, to $25.64.
Delta Air Lines’ firstquarter profit jumped 27%, helped by low fuel costs. Delta’s stock gained 45 cents to $48.49, but its competitors had bigger gains. American Airlines rose $1.23, or 3.1%, to $41.17 and United added $1.15, or 2.1%, to $56.73. JetBlue and Southwest also rose.
Pier 1 Imports fell after the home decor firm gave a shaky outlook for the first half of its fiscal year. Pier 1 said it expects pressure on its profit and sales because of marketing expenses, including a return to TV advertising, as well as price markdowns. The stock gave up 43 cents, or 5.9%, to $6.91.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 26 cents to $41.50 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, gave up 34 cents to $43.84 a barrel in London. Wholesale gasoline fell 2 cents to $1.51 a gallon.
In Europe, Germany’s DAX was up 0.7% while the CAC-40 in France rose 0.5%. The FTSE 100 index in Britain held steady. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 closed 3.2% higher as the yen weakened against the dollar. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.8% and the KOSPI in South Korea climbed 1.7%.
Bond prices slipped. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.79% from 1.77%. The euro fell to $1.1267 from $1.1283 and the dollar edged up to 109.28 yen from 109.24 yen.